UPDATED: Teen shot by cop in Ferguson a suspect in recent robbery

Published August 15. 2014 9:58AM | Updated August 15. 2014 2:54PM

DAVID A. LIEB and ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press

FERGUSON, Mo. — A suburban St. Louis police chief on Friday identified the officer whose fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager ignited days of heated protests, and released documents alleging the teen was killed after a robbery in which he was suspected of stealing a box of cigars worth $48.99.

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson released police reports stemming from the case during a news conference where he also identified the officer involved as Darren Wilson, who has been on administrative leave since he shot 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9.

Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, were suspected of taking the cigars from a convenience store in Ferguson that morning, according to police documents. Jackson said Wilson responded after a 911 call reported a "strong-arm" robbery just before noon. He said a dispatcher gave a description of the suspect, and Wilson encountered Brown a few minutes before another officer arrived.

Jackson said Wilson is a six-year veteran of the police department, but he refused to release any other details about the officer.

The family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, said Brown's parents were "incensed" after being blind-sided by the public announcement and allegations against their son.

"It's bad enough they assassinated him, and now they're trying to assassinate his character," he said.

Crump noted that police aren't releasing a photo of the officer but released photos from the store's security video that they say shows Brown grabbing a man inside the store. Crump said he hadn't seen the photos.

"(Police) are choosing to disseminate information that is very strategic to try to help them justify the execution-style murder of their son by this police officer in broad daylight," said Crump, who also represented the family of Trayvon Martin, the teenager fatally shot by a Florida neighborhood watch organizer who was later acquitted of murder.

The video, dated Aug. 9, appears to show a man wearing a ball cap, shorts and white T-shirt grabbing a much shorter man by his shirt near the store's door. A police report alleges that Brown grabbed a man who had come from behind the store counter by his shirt and "forcefully pushed him back" into a display rack.

Johnson, Brown's friend, acknowledged to investigators that he and Brown were in the store and "that he did take cigarillos," his attorney, Freeman Bosley, told MSNBC. Bosley said he was aware of video but had not seen it.

Brown's uncle, Bernard Ewing, questioned whether Wilson really believed Brown was a suspect. He noted Johnson's account that the officer encountered the two young men and told them to get out of the street, and that Brown had his hands up when he was shot.

"If he's a robbery suspect, they would have had the lights on," Ewing said. "If you rob somebody, you would tell them, 'Get on the ground' or something, not, 'Get off the sidewalk.'"

"It still doesn't justify shooting him when he puts his hands up," he added. "You still don't shoot him in the face."

Brown's death has sparked several days of clashes with furious protesters in the city. The mood quelled on Thursday after the governor turned oversight of the protests over to the state Highway Patrol. State troopers walking side-by-side with thousands of peaceful protesters replaced the image of previous nights: police in riot gear and armored tanks.

But the police chief's announcement Friday was met with immediate disbelief and anger by several dozen community members who also attended the news conference, which was hastily held at a gas station burned during a night of looting earlier in the week in Ferguson, a town of 21,000 that is nearly 70 percent black and patrolled by a nearly all-white police force.

"He stopped the wrong one, bottom line," yelled Tatinisha Wheeler, a nurse's aide who was at the news conference.

A couple dozen protesters began marching, chanting "Hands up, don't shoot" and "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!"

Police have said Brown was shot after an officer encountered him and another man on the street during a routine patrol. They say one of the men pushed the officer into his squad car, then physically assaulted him in the vehicle and struggled with the officer over the officer's weapon. At least one shot was fired inside the car before the struggle spilled onto the street, where Brown was shot multiple times, according to police.

Dorian Johnson has told media a different story. He said an officer ordered him and Brown onto the sidewalk, then grabbed his friend's neck and tried to pull him into the car before brandishing his weapon and firing. He said Brown started to run and the officer pursued him, firing multiple times.

Tensions in Ferguson boiled over after a candlelight vigil Sunday night, as looters smashed and burned businesses in the neighborhood, where police have repeatedly fired tear gas and smoke bombs.

By Thursday, there was a dramatic shift in the atmosphere after Gov. Jay Nixon assigned protest oversight to Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who is black and grew up near Ferguson. He marched alongside protesters.

The streets were filled with music, free food and even laughter. When darkness fell — the point at which previous protests have grown tense — no uniformed officers were in sight outside the burned-out QuikTrip convenience store that had become a flashpoint for standoffs between police and protesters.

"All they did was look at us and shoot tear gas," Pedro Smith, who has participated in the nightly protests, said Thursday. "This is totally different. Now we're being treated with respect."

President Barack Obama on Thursday spoke publicly for the first time about Ferguson, saying there was "no excuse" for violence either against the police or by officers against peaceful protesters.

Attorney General Eric Holder has said federal investigators have interviewed witnesses to the shooting.

Associated Press writers Jim Salter and Jim Suhr in St. Louis, Eric Tucker in Washington and Hillel Italie in New York, and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner, also in New York, contributed to this report.